Ah....credit

[reprobayt]

Can you suggest a credit card offer with good rates? A friend of mine with ok/decent credit wants to know...and I have no idea.

Comments

[missakins.livejournal.com]

no idea how good or bad this site is...but there's a wizard to pick some card offers for them.

http://www.creditcards.com/

[blueingenue.livejournal.com]

www.fatwallet.com forums are full of credit card addicts. They have ongoing babble on the merits of various cards. You can also ask on www.creditboards.com

I've been getting good offers in the mail from Discover lately--good intro offers and decent-looking rewards programs. However, I don't need another card right now, and I still feel like withholding my business from Discover because they "ratejacked" me 9 years ago.

I'd avoid getting any new cards from American Express Bank right now (or perhaps EVER). My personal experience is that right after I got their card last November, I had one month to take advantage of a sweet 0% for 15 months offer. I set up the balance transfer online, but received a letter that said it would not be processed. I called to complain and got the runaround: "Your account is too new to use [the balance transfer offer that's only good for 30 days after the account is opened]." "Due to the current economy very few of these offers are being honored."

Other AmEx Bank practices I haven't personally experienced, but have read about: Their risk management practices sometimes leave people stranded with their credit cut off and no way to get it turned back on other than immediate full payment and giving permission for AmEx to review your recent tax returns pulled directly from the IRS. It's tough handle this in the middle of a business trip. "Don't leave home without a backup." AmEx Bank is one of several banks that have been doing a lot of "balance chasing" (repeatedly lowering credit limits to just above the balance owed, making the customer appear perpetually maxxed out). Some people have reported that AmEx [didn't like something about their spending pattern and] called to pressure them into making full payment days BEFORE any payment was due.

AmEx network cards issued by other banks aren't subject to funky AmEx Bank standards, so the quality of those cards varies by bank.

Bank of America has been cutting credit lines in half for existing excellent customers, including yours truly. However, they have occasionally sent me very usable balance transfer offers, often with a capped (instead of unlimited) transfer fee. Several banks are raising "BT" fee structure from 3% to 4%, and I believe BofA is one of those banks.

Citi has always been good to me, and although they are cutting a lot of credit lines, this month I got a pre-approved credit limit increase. (This was after I read that the pre-approved increase--Luv--button on the Citi website had already given several others "Citi Luv".

Chase (Manhattan, not JP Morgan) has recently sent letters to customers about a pending reduction in rewards for some of their best rewards programs. The mailing spins this as a positive change. "Good things are coming from Chase" or somesuch baloney. They also recently imposed a $10 monthly fee for people carrying low-interest "for life" balance transfers and instituted a 5% minimum payment. The only way to opt-out of this change was to pay-in-full and close the account, or agree to a higher interest rate on the balance. Chase has been trying to force the resulting lawsuits into binding arbitration (a clause that is in most banks' cardholder agreements because it allows banks to quash legal challenges by removing to their own own stacked-deck legal venue).

U.S. Bank has been flying under the radar in the credit crunch--a good thing. My favorite rewards card is their REI Visa. I recommend the REI co-op membership and the branded Visa product to anyone who likes to shop there.

Good advice right now is to start a banking relationship with one or more credit unions and obtain their credit card products.

If I think of a specific card to recommend, I'll get back to you.

[missakins.livejournal.com]

Didn't BofA buy AmEx?

[blueingenue.livejournal.com]

Not that I know of, but...

BofA absorbed MBNA a while back. MBNA was a big issuer of AmEx cards. This is an example of an AmEx cards that are not issued by American Express Centurion Bank.

Now that the new bank behind those MBNA AmEx cards is Bank of America, these cards are "BofA AmEx". But BofA Bank and AmEx Bank are still separate banks. If you want an AmEx network card (so you can use credit a credit card at stores that only accept AmEx, such as Costco), but you don't want to deal with the shenanigans of American Express Centurion Bank, the BofA(MBNA) AmEx would be one choice. It would depend on whether you wanted to do business with BofA.

AMERICAN EXPRESS AND MBNA ANNOUNCE CARD ISSUING ALLIANCE - January 29, 2004
http://home3.americanexpress.com/corp/pc/2004/mbna_axp.asp

Bank of America buys credit card firm MBNA - June 30, 2005
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8414809/